One of the things that I enjoy most about Second Life is collaboration, I like the opportunity to work with people and to explore the various ideas that come up – sometimes those that are not possible in real life are the most exciting ones of all.

After much effort on the part of many, I can honestly say that I am honored and humbled by the designers who have agreed to participate in my little shindig. I asked 5 jewelry designers to join me in a collaborative effort I like to call Etheria! And they rose magnificently to the occasion. Each jewelry agreed to create a new piece, and then to ask a clothing designer friend of theirs to design an outfit to GO WITH their piece. Frankly, I’m floored. I think that you will be too! I invite you to stop by our old riverboat bordello and check out the collaborative efforts of these fantastic jewelers & clothing designers! I want to personally thank each and everyone of them:

I am grateful and delighted by their participation! I invite you to visit their individual blogs for details on their wondrous creations, and here’s an LM to the event so you can visit and see them up close and personal yourself! Click this link to teleport directly to Etheria!

In my own personal collaboration, I worked with Sienia Trevellion of Lark. I designed my own jewelry pieces around the ‘painted ladies’ theme, and it occurred to me that a painted lady would want to draw attention to herself. So I created a necklace that is sure to draw attention! I named it, “My Lady Love, and Sienia designed a dress that would accentuate the piece. The dress is called, “Bedroom Eyes,” and our intent was that the dress could be worn to evoke the feeling of the era, but would also have a modern feel. I hope you like, here’s some pictures of the items!

Last year, I decided I wanted to do an event that would bring designers of different specialties together in a creative endeavor that would highlight the accessory part of the design equation. I called the event Etheria, and somehow managed to pull it off! Based on the success of the previous event, and after discussing it with some good friends, I decided that the time was ripe for another collaborative event in Second Life. I’m pleased to announce that I’ve managed to convince several designers in SL to join me! What is Etheria? Etheria is a collaborative design event, in which we ask the question, what do jewelers dream? I’ve asked a group of jewelry designers, whose work I greatly admire, to create special pieces just for Etheria. In order to make the event even more interesting, each jewelry designer then in turn asks a clothing designer that they greatly admire, to create an outfit specifically for the jewelry they’ve designed. It requires a collaborative effort on the part of both designers, to work to make the clothing and the jewelry work together! In the last Etheria, I worked with Sienia Trevellion of Lark! I’m pleased to announce that Sienia and I will once again be working together. I’m honored and happy to announce the other paired designers for this event: Caroline’s Jewelry & DCNY, Donna Flora & GizzA Creations, Lolapop! & Schadenfreude, Miao & Somnia, and finally Undefined Lilies & Whippet & Buck.

The six paired designers for this event will be working with a specific theme, which is something that we didn’t exactly do last time round. The theme is, “Painted Ladies.” What is a painted lady? In the American Old West, during the gold rush era, there was a group of men called, the ‘49ers, who swarmed the sierra nevada mountains of California in a reckless search for gold! The truth of this era is that the people who made the most money were the services that supported the gold rush, specifically, those who sold shovels and mules. In addition there was a class of women who also supported the minors, in a rather bold fashion. These woman were labeled by the the minors with names such as “ladies of the line” and “sporting women, while the cowboys dubbed them “soiled doves.” Other nicknames for these women, who were as much a part of the Old West as were the outlaws, cowboys and miners, were “scarlet ladies,” fallen angels,” “frail sisters,” “fair belles,” and “painted ladies,” among dozens of others. In short though these were women who sold their bodies for money. While these woman did indeed sell their bodies, there is a certain boldness and fascination about them, when you look at the old pictures of their dress and style. And that’s what we will focus on for the event.

The event runs from January 1 to 8, 2012. It will be located on the Amira sim, in the middle of the lagoon. I hope you can join us, please keep your eyes open for announcements of the landmarks for the event, they will become available shortly before it opens.